Ducks News

Inside The Numbers: Game 5

The numbers show that the Anaheim Ducks were on top of their game both offensively and defensively in their Stanley Cup clinching 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators.

The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup by saving the best for last.

The Ducks did just about everything right Wednesday night in a 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators that gave Anaheim its first Stanley Cup since entering the NHL in 1992.

Offensively, the Ducks had their best performance in their 21 playoff games this year. The only other time in their history that Anaheim had scored as many as six goals in a game was in Game 5 of last year’s Western Conference Finals, when they beat Edmonton 6-3 to stave off elimination. The four-goal margin also matched the Ducks’ largest in this year’s playoffs.

Defensively, the Ducks limited Ottawa to just 13 shots on goal, the fewest by any team in this year’s 81 playoff games. In fact, the Ducks blocked more shots (16) than they allowed reach Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

The Ducks’ special teams had their best night, too. The power play was 2-for-6 after scoring just once in the first four games, while the penalty-killers were 3-for-3. The Ducks even played more disciplined hockey — for the first time in the series, they had fewer penalty minutes than the Senators.

John Kreiser, who has covered the NHL since 1975, is NHL.com's man behind the numbers.

All in all, a performance worthy of the Stanley Cup that the Ducks and their fans will celebrate all summer long.

Some Other Numbers Of Interest From Game 5:

0 — Overtime games in this year’s Stanley Cup Final, the first time no final-round game has gone into OT since 2001 and only the second time since 1997. Seventeen games went into overtime in this year’s playoffs; Anaheim went 4-1, while Ottawa was 2-1.

1 — Shorthanded goals in the Final. Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson scored at 17:38 of the second period while the Senators were killing a penalty was the only one by either team.

2 — Points in the Final by Scott Niedermayer, winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy. Niedermayer is the first non-goalie to win the Conn Smythe without scoring a goal in the Final, and the first to win with as few as two points since Claude Lemieux, then a teammate of Niedermayer with the New Jersey Devils, had two goals for his only points in the 1995 Final.

3 — Goals in the Final by Anaheim’s Travis Moen, including two game-winners. Moen scored the winner in Game 1 and was credited with what turned out to be the game- and Cup-winner in Game 5 when Ottawa goaltender Ray Emery accidentally knocked the puck into his own net at 15:44 of the second period. He added another in the third period.

4 —Stanley Cup rings for Niedermayer, who won the first three with the New Jersey Devils. He was the only Duck who had won a Cup before this year.

5 — Goals by Anaheim center Andy McDonald, the most by any player from either team in the Final. McDonald led Anaheim with 10 playoff goals and had seven of his 14 playoff points in the Final.

6 — Games won by Anaheim at the Honda Center in the Stanley Cup Final, in as many tries in franchise history. The Ducks won all three games at home in the 2003 Final against New Jersey and were 3-0 against Ottawa this year.

12 — Times in the playoffs the Ducks got the game’s first goal. The Ducks won 10 of those games, including Game 5. One of the two losses was in Game 3 at Ottawa.

13 — Seasons since a Canadian-based team has won the Stanley Cup, the longest drought since the NHL took possession of the Cup in 1926. The 1993 Montreal Canadiens were the last team from Canada to win the Cup. Ottawa joins the 1994 Vancouver Canucks, 2004 Calgary Flames and 2006 Edmonton Oilers as Canadian-based teams that have lost in the Final.

14 — Goals in the playoffs by Alfredsson, the most by any player this year. Ottawa’s captain led his team with four goals in the Final.

17 — Points by Ryan Getzlaf, the most by any Duck in the playoffs. Getzlaf finished fifth in the playoff scoring race.

22 — Points by each of Ottawa’s “Big Three,” Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza, tying them for the playoff scoring lead. It’s the lowest total to lead the playoffs since New Jersey’s Jamie Langenbrunner and Scott Niedermayer had 18 in the Devils’ Cup-winning year of 2003. Heatley had only one point (a goal) in the Final; Spezza had only two (both assists).

31 —Combined shots on goal by Ottawa (13) and Anaheim (18) in Game 5, the fewest in a deciding game since the 1978 expansion. It was one more than the 32 that Tampa Bay (15) and Calgary (17) combined for in Game 7 in 2004.

40 — Times the Stanley Cup has been won by a team with a chance to win it on home ice, in 56 opportunities. The Ducks are the sixth consecutive team to win the Cup at home.

45 — Shots at goal by Ottawa in Game 5. The Senators got only 13 of those on goal; 16 were blocked by the Ducks and another 16 were missed, including a penalty-shot attempt by Antoine Vermette in the third period.

82 — Years since the Stanley Cup had been won by a team in the Pacific time zone. The third and last western team to take home the Cup was the 1925 Victoria Cougars, who won the best-of-five Final against the Montreal Canadiens in four games. The Cougars were also the last non-NHL team to win the Cup. Since then, four previous NHL West Coast teams (1982 and 1994 Vancouver Canucks, 1993 Los Angeles Kings and 2003 Ducks) made the Final but lost.

99 — Playoff games in Senators’ history. Alfredsson is the only player to play in all 99. He also holds the team records for playoff goals (43), assists (37) and points. He also owns the only two three-goal games in the Senators’ playoff history.